Jul 9, 2013 3 min read

HARRISBURG – A long-delayed preliminary hearing for three former Penn State administrators accused of a criminal cover-up of sex abuse complaints about ex-assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky has been scheduled for later this month.

Harrisburg District Judge William Wenner said Tuesday the three-day hearing for Graham Spanier, Gary Schultz and Tim Curley will begin in just under three weeks. The proceeding will determine if prosecutors have enough evidence to send the matter to county court for trial.

The three men are accused of obstruction, conspiracy and other offenses for their handling of complaints about Sandusky, who eventually was charged with abusing several boys. The men all vigorously deny the allegations.

Sandusky, a Washington native, was convicted a year ago of dozens of counts of child sexual abuse but maintains his innocence and is appealing a 30- to 60-year state prison term.

Spanier was forced out as university president shortly after Sandusky’s arrest. Curley and Schultz were first arrested in November 2011.

The hearing will begin July 29, in the Dauphin County Courthouse in Harrisburg, and continue July 30 and Aug. 1 if needed.

The judge previously presided over a preliminary hearing for the first set of charges against Curley and Schultz.

The hearing for Spanier and additional charges filed against the other two late last year has been held up because of a legal dispute about the role played in the case by the university’s then-chief counsel, Cynthia Baldwin, who accompanied them to their grand jury appearances.

On June 7 the state Supreme Court denied an appeal by Curley and Schultz that has been pursued under seal, as it involves grand jury matters.

In a typical Pennsylvania criminal case, the preliminary hearing is held within weeks, or a month or two, of the arrest.

Curley is the school’s former athletic director, and Schultz is a retired Penn State vice president.

Schultz lawyer Tom Farrell and Spanier lawyer Tim Lewis declined to comment on the hearing being scheduled. Neither a spokeswoman for Curley’s legal team nor a spokesman for the attorney general’s office, which is prosecuting the case, offered immediate comment.

The arrest of Sandusky on pedophilia charges led to the firing of Hall of Fame coach Joe Paterno and resulted in an agreement between Penn State and the NCAA to impose stiff penalties against one of the nation’s premiere college football programs.

A year ago this week, Penn State received a report from former FBI Director Louis Freeh that found that Paterno, who died in January 2012, Spanier, Curley and Schultz concealed a 2001 allegation against Sandusky to protect Penn State from bad publicity. The late coach’s family, as well as Spanier, Curley and Schultz, dispute Freeh’s assertions.